August 12, 2006

Sarah Adams, MCC AIDS Coordinator

Today was a special day. While we’ve spent the last two days fellowshipping with other Christians, today we had the opportunity to widen our circle. We spent the day with people of many faiths as we all took part in a one day Interfaith Pre-Conference. What an amazing experience to worship with, share with, and learn from Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, and people from many other faiths.

I attended a workshop about the role of Islam in the fight against AIDS. We spent a lot of time talking about the many similarities that people of faith share when it comes to addressing the AIDS pandemic. The workshop leader, a Muslim AIDS activist from South Africa, shared with us 6 stages that he believes most faith groups experience in their journey with responding to AIDS:

• 1st stage – Silence
• 2nd stage - Denial
• 3rd stage – Scorn
• 4th stage – Pity
• 5th stage – Compassion
• 6th stage – Justice

It seems we are beginning to make a positive difference once we have gotten to the pity stage. But pity still makes the problem about the other person. In the case of AIDS, if we feel pity, we are seeing the problem in another person, but not yet acknowledging our role in the problem. When we arrive at compassion, we’ve gotten a bit further. It’s no longer just about the other person. It’s now about the other person and about us, together. But compassion still means the issue is between two people. It is only when we get to the justice stage that we are getting at the real problem, the root of the problem. Justice means the issue is about relationships on a global scale and the way that systems – governments, businesses, communities, churches – work for either the good or the detriment of the people. At the justice stage, we are taking on the problem as a global challenge that we all must work to address. I’m not sure where I am on the scale. Some days I think I may float back and forth between the stages. I strive for justice but realize that I’m not there each day. Sometimes the intensity of a statistic or the story of someone I meet stops me at pity or compassion. I think my hope is that we don’t need to see the final justice stage as the only legitimate stage. Perhaps other stages have their own value in the fight against AIDS.

One highlight of the day for me was a march that we took through Toronto’s city hall. Hundreds of us, from all faiths, chanting the slogan – "Keep the Promise. Stop AIDS." As I looked around me, I saw the faces of so many individuals. A man from Africa, yelling ‘stop AIDS’ in his loudest voice, with passion. A woman from Asia, holding a banner with the same message. Youth from North America, pumping their fists in the air as they pleaded with us all to ‘keep the promise’. Priests from Latin America, monks from Asia, rabbis from Israel – all with the same message. Keep the promise. Stop AIDS. There was more than once during the march that tears came to my eyes. All of these people, passionately dedicating their lives to bringing an end to the destruction of AIDS. As a group, we seemed at once so small in the face of the disease and yet so important as a voice in the struggle. We were all there fighting. Fighting for friends, brothers, nieces, and neighbors that couldn’t be there with us. When we leave here, we’ll have to face that world again. That painful world. But for an afternoon, we believed. We forgot about the pain for a minute and focused on the hope.